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Meow, the fat cat whose 39-pound girth helped raise awareness about obesity in pets, has died of lung failure.

The Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society announced Meow's death in a Facebook post, saying the two-year-old cat passed away Saturday afternoon after suffering respiratory distress and then pulmonary failure.

The orange and white tabby was brought into the shelter when its 87-year-old owner could no longer care for him.

The shelter put the obese cat on a diet in hopes he could lose enough weight to be adopted.

He was in the care of a foster home at the time of his death.

"Meow had been doing so well in his foster home; walking up stairs and seeking affection; that it is so very hard to believe he is gone," the shelter said in its Facebook statement.

"We will forever be grateful for the attention Meow's size brought to pet obesity and to animal shelters across the country."

His feline weight roughly translated into a human weight of more than 600 pounds.

Sourceaww this made me so sad cuz it reminded me of when my cat Mickey died suddenly and now im all sad again.